After you read the key team bios, ask yourself the following question: Do I want to go into this job search alone or do I want experts like these working with me to effect a positive change in my career or speed up my job search? We’ve done it for others and we can do it for you.

SC&C Executives

Fred Coon

“When I formed this company 20+ years ago, I would speak with highly-qualified job seekers. Some had been fired, or laid off, or were about to be. Some were not getting interviews. When they secured an interview, there were no offers. When they received offers, they were unacceptable. It was frightening facing unemployment, often for the first time, with bills to pay. Some felt trapped and alone, some felt embarrassed or ashamed, the feeling that that they had failed themselves and their family. They questioned who might want them and assumed they were stigmatized and stuck with this new status causing them to be perceived as less valuable to companies. The feelings are still the same today, two decades later. My clients hire me to help them develop a clear, value-driven brand, get in front of decision makers, and better communicate their genius to those who are hiring. I like helping others. What I really enjoy is seeing my clients get what they want.”

Fred Coon is Chief Executive Officer of Stewart, Cooper & Coon. He has advised thousands of executives on their job search campaigns. Fred is quoted in Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, Money Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Success Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and other major national publications, and appears on affiliate stations of ABC, NBC, and CBS as an expert on the job and employment market. His SC&C Career Advice Blog has over 5,000 monthly subscribers worldwide.

Fred was on the senior team of two different companies, in two different industries, achieving multiple listings in Inc. Magazine’s top 500 fastest growing companies in America. One of those companies, Certified Collateral Corporation, was in the top 100 fastest growing companies in the United States. CCC was number 31 on the 1986 Inc. Magazine 100 List and number 54 on the 1987 Inc. Magazine 100 List, as well as first in profitability among all of the listed companies in both years.

He is a Licensed Employment Agent, a Nationally Certified Job and Career Transition Coach, a Behavioral Consultant and a Certified Disc Administrator. Mr. Coon is a member of the Arizona Technology Council – Policy Advisory Committee, the Workforce Business Intelligence Board, and The Forbes Coaching Council.

He is a founding member of The Arizona Corporate Council on Veteran Careers. This collaboration of companies is focused on maximizing career opportunities for all service members, veterans and their family members statewide. The corporate council works in partnership with the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, the Arizona Coalition for Military Families and other key stakeholders in support of the Arizona Roadmap to Veteran Employment. He was invited and joined the Board of Directors of the Reveille Foundation, an organization that helps veterans, minorities, and Native American populations.

He is author of several best-selling career books. His first, Ready Aim Hired, was used as one of the textbooks for the Strategic Career Management course at the Daniels College of Business Graduate School, University of Denver. He was also the first appointed Virtual Executive Mentor for Graduate and Undergraduate students at Daniels, as well.

His best-selling book, Leveraging LinkedIn For Job Search Success is available on Amazon. Currently, there are over 54,000 copies in the marketplace. Mr. Coon is a contributing author to the book, Business Model You, by Tim Clark – now in seven languages. His latest best-selling book, Hire The EQ, Not The IQ, focuses on hiring the right “fit” for any given job using behavioral interviewing tactics that he and his co-author, Ron Venckus, spent 10 years researching and developing behavioral questions to will help managers hire the right fit for any given job.

Fred is the Publisher for the National Job & Career Transition Resources Guide, and a white paper titled, Managing Multi-Generations for Profit & Harmony, which are FREE to the public. He is currently working on a military transition book specifically directed at anyone leaving the Armed Forces who would like to better understand how to make a personally meaningful and financially rewarding transition. He lectures and conducts hand-on workshops throughout United States for universities, educational, professional, business and management conferences and on military installations, nationwide.

On a personal note, he is also a well-known 5-string Appalachian claw-hammer style banjo player with concert performances in Ireland, Scotland, England, Australia, and throughout the United States, with media appearances on local, regional, and international radio and television programs, both in the U.S. and overseas, for over five decades.

Oliver Cornell

Oliver is one of the early adopters of the use of modern marketing techniques to effect the transition of highly successful executives and professionals from one position to another. He is one of the pioneers in the development of individual and corporate outplacement consulting practices that saw career transition as a marketing problem, a problem of positioning, packaging, promoting and pricing.

He began his career as a college teacher and became involved in publishing, eventually running a small publishing house in Chicago, Printer’s Row Press, publishing a weekly newspaper, pamphlets, journals and books, primarily in the political arena.

In early 1980 he began a new career in corporate and executive outplacement built upon the principles of modern marketing. Rising to the position of Executive Vice President he was one of the key associates to grow the company nationwide, personally working along the way helping to place hundreds of senior level managers and executives in new and exciting growth opportunities. In 1986 he formed his own executive placement and corporate outplacement firm and built the company to cover twenty-one major market areas in the West, successfully working with thousands of clients. He retired from the career industry in 2001.

In that same year, he turned his passion into a business and began managing investments. He also helped found a company to raise money for schools which eventually incorporated and utilized the latest Internet technology to further its national presence.

Realizing the absolute necessity of using the internet and its enormous access to information to run a successful executive search he joined Stewart, Cooper & Coon coming back to the business of helping serious-minded executives find rewarding new jobs and careers.

Chuck McConnell

Charles “Chuck” McConnell has been a leading voice in career management for many years. He defined and developed First Career Corporation and FindCareer.com and serves as the “Career Expert” for New York American Marketing Association. He has published numerous articles on the subject of career management and search preparation and has organized national and international conferences that have assisted thousands in getting their career searches on track.

Prior to his work in career services, Chuck was the Senior Consulting Partner at The Watson Group, a strategic communications agency based in NYC. His background includes corporate management positions with multinational marketers in the packaged goods, snack, confection, toy and apparel industries.

Chuck was President of The Apparel Group Limited, building worldwide acceptance of men’s apparel. He also has held global management positions at top advertising agencies such as WPP, Bozell and DMB&B and major marketers including Hanes, International Playtex and General Foods. Chuck earned his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA in economics from DePauw University and Exeter University in England.

Mark Van Der Walde

Mark brings 25+ years of retained executive search, corporate human resources and talent management services to Stewart, Cooper& Coon. Mark has a proven track record in addressing all of a company’s human capital recruiting needs, these include: single assignment, technical track executive- or director-level positions, multi-position, large-scale recruiting projects for venture capital-backed start-ups, to senior fulfillment for multinational conglomerates. His focus on quality deliverables, coupled with his understanding of key market trends, consistently produces results that positively impact the growth and success of his clients.

Mark began his search career with two of the top ten executive search firms in North America, Richards Consultants, and Spencer Stuart. Mark has worked with both multinational companies and the venture capital community across a diverse range of industries, including Microelectronics- RF/Power Electronics, MEMS/Nanotechnology, Life Sciences Industries, Telecommunications, Industrial Manufacturing and Alternative Energy. Mark is one of the early adopters of (RPO) Recruiting Process Outsourcing & outsourcing of Executive Search & Talent Management/Corporate Recruiting, working with multiple companies at any given time.

Mark holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Organizational Development, both from Suffolk University, supported by a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration and a majority of course work completed for a Masters in Clinical Social work.

Stephen Xavier

Stephen has been successfully working in the areas of Executive Coaching, Leadership Development and a wide range of related Professional Development areas since leaving a corporate position at Textron, Inc. in 1987. Although his work has focused primarily in the areas of Leadership Development, he also brings a significant level of experience to the field of Outplacement Consulting and Support; assisting clients in outward transition towards new positions in their careers.

For the last 25 years he has worked exclusively with a wide array of Fortune 500 corporations consulting with their C-suite teams to build successful models of leadership and organizations from a Human Capital point of view. Stephen has worked within every major business sector. That experience has provided him a wide range of expertise and considerable depth when he focuses his energies on Corporate Outplacement.

Amgen

ABC Television Network

Ciba Vision

City of Hope Hospital

Cedars-Sinai Hospital

Credit Suisse

Disney

BMW (US)

Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Glaxo-Smith Kline

Northrop Grumman

Novartis

L3

Kenwood

Edison International

Southern California Edison

MidWest Generation

Panasonic (Japan)

Toyota

Sony (Japan)

TRW

Xerox

Textron

Republic Services

Motorola (Japan)

Lenovo

Credit Suisse

The Zenith

RI Project AIDS (RI)

RI Project AIDS (RI)

Woodward

He has also consulted with the following organizations: Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce (NC), Apex Chamber of Commerce (NC), and the Wake County Economic Development (NC).

Considered a pioneer in the area of Coaching, Stephen has been published more than 40 times globally in academic, trade and business publications and was a frequent contributor to the LA Times, NY Times, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal on topics of Leadership, Workplace Issues and Career Success and Transition. Emerald Publishing (London/NYC) selected Stephen’s work in their “Global Best Of” annual series in 2008 for his work in the area of “Business Strategy For a New Era”.

He has also been featured in Chief Learning Officer magazine and his work has also been published in numerous publications including MWORLD, the American Management Association’s magazine. His article in Winter 2008-09 “Mitigating Risk: What Happens When The CEO Leaves” was a feature piece in that edition.

He couples this background with extensive cross-cultural experience, having lived and worked in Japan several years. While in Japan, Xavier worked with executives from Motorola, Kenwood, Panasonic and Sony to improve their leadership skills and abilities.

Xavier resides in Apex, NC in the heart of the Research Triangle Park with his two children. In the Triangle his work has been instrumental in supporting both the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and Wake County Economic Development, key partners in the Triangle’s growth and development, to reorganize and continue their own growth. He advises both senior leaders and the Board’s of both organizations.

Additionally, he has worked with numerous area not-for-profits, focusing on fundraising, at-risk youth counseling, literacy programs for underprivileged urban youth and, frequently serves as a Communications Director for these organizations when needed.

Education

He is a graduate of Lesley University in Cambridge, MA and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management, Cum Laude, from that institution.

Michelle Settle

Michelle Settle has over fifteen years of experience in corporate expansion, management development and training, and executive administration. She has initiated the creation and development of various innovative training solutions for multiple nationwide corporations. Michelle’s high success record of problem solving, conflict resolution and team building in a variety of fields adds a new dimension to the corporate structure at Stewart, Cooper & Coon.

Ms. Settle is an integral part of Stewart, Cooper & Coon. She has been with the firm since its inception, directing all corporate administration and executive client support services, as well as logistics for the company nationwide. Her success in organizational development, leadership development, corporate planning and client relations management have proven to be a great asset to clients at Stewart, Cooper & Coon.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University and is currently pursuing in Master’s in Education.

“Effective interpersonal communications” is not theory, it is practice. Bill has developed and utilized his strategies to help thousands of people obtain optimum opportunities in line with their short and long-term personal development goals. He has used the same principles to help companies, non-profits and Boards of Director improve productivity and profitability.

Bill gained a significant base of experience through positions that included:

Founder and Director of Consulting for a leading career management firm

President/Director for a venture capital company

Executive Vice President for a mortgage-backed securities company

Vice President/Director for a bank holding company and its subsidiary thrift

Bill received his undergraduate degree from Wittenberg University and completed a Masters Study in Mass Communications at the University of Denver. He earned his MBA -Finance from National University, graduating with honors, and is currently an adjunct faculty member with the University of Phoenix in Communications, Management, Leadership, and Finance.

He has held the position of Trustee and Treasurer of the La Jolla Town Council and Chairman of its Business and Professional Committee. His efforts have also included AYSO coach and soccer referee, school board financial and site acquisition consultant, Parent Volunteer in the classroom, and Advisor to the President of Wittenberg University for regional alumni affairs.

Kristine Barney

Kristine Barney has over 10 years of experience in Customer Service and Human Resources Management. She began her career after she graduated from California State University, Northridge with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science. Prior to joining the Stewart, Cooper and Coon team, Kristine worked for First American Title, one of the largest and oldest land title companies in California for several years. She held a senior position in the Human Resources department and was responsible for not only staff liaisons but Client Services as well. Kristine is currently enrolled in a Master’s Education program.

Matthew Mantel

Matthew Mantel is considered a national authority in the Career Development industry. With over 15 years of experience in Executive Coaching, Talent Management, Education, Public Speaking, Social Media Marketing, Life Coaching and Legal Consulting, Matthew brings a powerful and unique prospective to Personal Branding and Professional Growth. With a background in Industrial Organizational Psychology and Family Law, Matthew spent the first years of his career as a Family Counselor and State Representative with the Department of Children and Families. He later transitioned into Executive Career Development and Human Resources Consulting.

Matthew is a Certified Career Coach, Certified Professional Resume Writer and Nationally Board-Certified Life Coach. After working as an independent contractor for some of the largest Executive Search Firms in the Nation, he developed his first company, Complete Career Consulting. C3 provided Executive Career seekers with all the tools, materials and strategies to advance in their fields or transition into new industries. Matthew has a unique niche in Brand Management and translating skills and work history to optimize his client’s visibility and credibility. His consulting firm provided clients with high level coaching and resources, working with executives all over the US. Matthew has collaborated with Professional Athletes, High Ranking Military Officers, Top-Level Executives, Fortune 500 Companies and International Organizations.

He has spoken at major Universities and Community colleges throughout the East Coast. Matthew’s experience in Career Counseling, Coaching and Public Speaking, has driven him to dedicate a lot of his professional time into educating students on effective career development strategies in today’s highly competitive market. He additionally works with Educators and Staff Members on learning effective techniques to assist students in their career paths and placements. Matthew also has a background in technology and drives business growth and industry leadership through social media marketing strategies and online education.